The present invention relates generally to online marketing and more specifically to content distribution systems that distribute advertising in conjunction with content.
Advertisers are increasingly using the Internet to reach consumers with marketing messages. Many early Internet marketing campaigns involved payment for placement of banner advertisements on web pages on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) basis. Under a CPM basis, the advertiser pays an amount for each user that visits a web site irrespective of whether the user pays any attention to the banner advertisement. In an attempt to measure the effectiveness of placing advertising on a particular web site at driving traffic to an advertiser's own web site, marketing arrangements involving the Internet have grown to include in addition to CPM, the more quantifiable cost-per-click (CPC) basis. Under a CPC model, advertisers measure the number of visitors to a web site that view an advertisement or key word and click through the advertisement or key word to a web site designated by the advertiser.
Over time, the CPC model has been enhanced and automated by companies such as Google, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. For example, search engines now provide an advertiser with the opportunity to bid on a CPC basis for search terms that will drive traffic to the advertiser's web site. In addition, web site owners now have the option of including contextually relevant advertising on their web sites for a percentage of CPC revenue derived when visitors to the web site click through an advertisement.
A number of web sites exist that enable users to distribute User Generated Content (UGC). The term “user generated content” (UGC) is commonly used to refer to electronic media posted on the Internet by an individual. Examples of UGC include text posted in the form of a blog, audio posted in the form of a podcast, images posted as photos or graphic designs, video uploaded to a media sharing web site, various combinations of these forms of media, and other media types including SMS text messages, MMS messages, non-digital media, and new media types. A feature of UGC is that it typically relies upon viral distribution to reach its audience, often through web sites such as, but not limited to, MySpace, Xanga, and YouTube that facilitate the distribution and exchange of UGC. “Viral distribution” is a term that is used to describe the distribution of information or media as a result of one to one or one to many interactions between individual users.
As an alternative to banner advertisements, a number of advertisers are using web sites that distribute UGC to conduct advertising campaigns. In several instances, advertisers have purchased the rights to popular UGC and incorporated an advertising message or associated a brand with the UGC. Another approach has been to produce advertisements that have the look and feel of UGC and to distribute the advertisements via the same web sites that distribute actual UGC. More sophisticated advertising campaigns involve the creation of a web site that distributes UGC that is solicited in relation to a product or idea. Examples of such web sites include web sites that solicit ideas for new products, ideas for new packaging designs and/or ideas for product advertising campaigns.
Many advertising campaigns that utilize UGC or web sites that distribute UGC are not necessarily intending for users to link to a web site and purchase goods. The primary objectives of many UGC based campaigns are to create brand awareness, communicate a message and/or increase user engagement with a brand or product.